Like Guillermo del Toro's favorite composer, Alexandre Desplat knew about the filmmaker’s desire to tell his version of Mary Shelley.”Frankenstein“
While del Toro loved the story, Desplat admits his own relationship with the iconic character was virtually nonexistent. He's read the book, but says, “I've never seen any of the Frankenstein movies.”
This gave him an innocent approach. Before filming began, Desplat began by writing several waltzes to find the right tone. “We were trying to find the era. Are we going to the point? Are we going pre-baroque, or are we going into the electronic age? We had to really decide what the sound of the film would be,” he says. Del Toro didn't want to make a period film, so Desplat says, “We tried not to be too dated.”
Aside from tone, the key was finding the sound of the Creature, played by Jacob Elordi. In del Toro's Frankenstein, the Creature is pieced together from dead soldiers killed in the Crimean War, and the narrative of who the monster really is is inverted.
“We wanted the soul of the creature to be very tender and fragile, and that would touch the audience,” says Desplat. “We chose the smallest, most fragile and most beautiful instrument – the violin. So, this huge creature has a sound that is the purest and most beautiful sound among classical instruments: the silver violin.”
At that moment, the Norwegian violinist Eldbjerg Hemsing entered. “She brings this pure sound. She doesn't play romantically, she plays beautifully. There's no other way to say it,” says Desplat. “She understands that the melodies I write must be pure, gentle and very harmonious.”
The purity of the instrument also reflected the purity of the being Elordi played. The main theme of “The Creature”, played by violin, was the first theme Desplat played for del Toro. “I think he liked it,” he says with a laugh.
In the film, the Creature breaks out of Victor Frankenstein's laboratory after Oscar Issac's character tries to kill his creation by blowing it up. The creature survives and begins its journey. As the Creature developed, Desplat wanted the audience to feel empathy. For this he used motifs, including one “one dedicated to the mother, which will also become the theme of Mia's love, because the mother and Elizabeth are the same.” The theme of love is played out subtly throughout the film.
For big, violent scenes like the tower fire, Desplat says, “You can really use motifs and melodies and make them completely different. They can get bombastic if you add a whole orchestra.”
The film doesn't have a full score, but Desplat says the key to the music was “my love for the actors and the characters.” He explains: “I listen to them and watch them. Sometimes I stop looking at them and just listen to them, their dialogue and try to merge with them. I want the music to dance with the actors. When I dance with them, I respect the tempo, the range of voices and the silence.”
In the finale, Desplat remains silent as the Thing helps the ship break free of the ice and turns to look at the horizon. Then the orchestra comes in “to make it like a real ending to an opera or a symphonic poem, where all the instruments come together,” says Desplat.
“Just as gently as we first brought the audience into the film with a silver violin, we now allow the audience to walk away with this huge, rich sound,” he adds.
Listen to the score below.
